Crime school: Crooks apply for teaching posts

Crime school: Crooks apply for teaching posts

Arsonists, fraudsters, robbers and drug dealers have all applied to become teachers

They had committed a total of 162 offences including assaults on police and ABH, according to the Criminal Records Bureau

Figures have revealed that 76 people who sought jobs in one county’s schools last year had criminal records.

They had committed a total of 162 offences including assaults on police and ABH, according to the Criminal Records Bureau.

The conviction information is passed on to prospective employers but the Department for Education stressed that only suitable candidates were actually given jobs.

The statistics, obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act, referred to teaching applications made in Staffordshire in 2011.

The 76 convicts represented 2.1% of the 3,563 who applied for teaching jobs.

Steve Cooper, head of Bursley Primary in Bradwell, Staffs, said: “I’m amazed that anyone with convictions like these would have the audacity to try to work in a school.”

Vic Goodwin, the NUT’s Staffordshire secretary and a retired teacher, said: “It is the individual school and the governors who hold job interviews but I’m sure all bodies would take very seriously any previous criminal conviction.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said the figures should be taken as an indication that the system was working.

A Staffs County Council spokesman said: “Headteachers ultimately make the final decision to employ.”